The Canal Story The Houseboats on the canal

Houseboats have been part of the Basingstoke Canal scene for the past 40 years. The largest community of more than forty converted narrow boats was first established at Woodham in 1959. A smaller number of floating homes was moored above Arthur's Bridge, Woking and two houseboats have been moored above Hermitage Bridge since the early 1960s. The idea of buying up disused commercial boats and converting them into homes was the brainchild of an enterprising barber from Balham, Mr Philip Dresman, who teamed up with a businessman, Mr John Frawlaw, to start Floating Homes Ltd. on the Basingstoke Canal. The Company bought a number of 80-year old narrow boats for £5 each lying on the Coventry Canal. Some of the 70-ft long craft had broken backs - these were cut in half and fitted with false transoms to make two homes. The Company had the option to buy as many as 200 boats but finally converted and fitted out 42 homes. Some of the former working boats used were the fine-lined traditional butties from the fleet of the Samuel Barlow Coal Co. Ltd. of Birmingham, still decorated in their traditional painted livery. Others were the less shapely 'Joey' boats, without living accomodation, used as day boats thoughout the Birmingham system for carrying coal.

They were brought down the Grand Union Canal to Brentford using Boy Scouts on holiday and any single working motor boats that were prepared to tow one or two down through the system. Six at a time were towed from Brentford to Weybridge by the McAnn towing company of Putney. The firm consisted of Rodney McAnn, his father and grandfather, and on the first few trips all three manned the tug and crewed the string of six narrowboat hulls breasted up behind. On arrival at Thames Lock, Weybridge, they were locked through two at a time and then continued on up the River Wey to the bottom of the Basingstoke Canal at Woodham. This was quite a slow process and took all day because only two boats could be locked through at a time, and the tug. So each lock required four passes to get them all through. As soon as they reached the junction with the canal, they were just pushed into the entrance and left. With housing in short supply following the second world war, there was a good demand for the £2,000 houseboats, especially since they were close to Woking and West Byfleet commuting stations for London. One of the first to move in was Mr Oliver Hibburd, an airline steward, who saw an advertisement for the houseboats in Dalton's Weekly. The idea appealed to him so much that he persuaded the Company to sell their 'showboat', named Joan Marshall after the general manager of the New Basingstoke Canal Company, owners of the waterway. Originally moored at Woodham - first at Scotland Bridge and then at Lock 3 - Mr Hibburd decided to follow a neighbouring boat Pandora up to Hermitage Bridge. While Pandora was towed up by Mrs Marshall's cart horse Captain, Mr Hibburd bow hauled his 70-ft long home, with the help of Les Foster (who became one of Surrey's canal rangers), the six miles westward. By the early 1960s plans to moor houseboats at ten sites up the canal to Hermitge Bridge, ran into trouble. In December 1963 the Minister of Housing and Local Government ruled that planning permission was needed: permanent mooring constituted "a material change in the use of the land" the Minister decreed. Moorings established at the three sites in use today were upheld, but the restriction put an end to Mr Dresman's wild but fascinating schemes which included a floating shop to cater for the houseboat owners. The departure of Floating Homes Ltd. left the houseboat owners without water and electricity supplies which the Company had provided. So, in 1964, residents set up their own service company, Canal Mooring Services Ltd. in which each boat owner at Arthur's Bridge and Woodham had a share. But it was very much a case of self help, as new arrival at the time, Tim Dodwell, recalls - "One of the first jobs on moving into our new home, on returning from our honeymoon, was to dig a trench for a new water pipe!". The houseboats were the last craft to use the locks before the decaying gates finally became inoperative in the mid 1960s. The makeshift 'Dry Dock' A small sleeper stage was built by Waterways Properties Ltd in the bed of the canal between Locks 3 and 4 at Woodham and this was used as a dry dock. Boats were taken above Lock 3 three or four at a time and the pound was then filled to about 4 feet deep. Boats were positioned over the stage one at a time and the water level was lowered to drop them onto it, where they could be worked on with relative ease. Eventually the houseboats were moored in the vicinity of Slococks Nursery, which is now the Bridge Barn restaurant, and between Locks 1 and 3 on both sides of the canal. In many places, certainly in the vicinity of Arthur's Bridge and from Scotland Bridge down to Lock 1, the towpath could not be used by the general public as it was enclosed as part of the houseboat gardens. By 1988 although many were still lived in, a number had fallen into disrepair, and with the imminent re-opening of the canal to navigation, all the houseboats had to pass canalworthiness inspections which reduced the Woodham community to 22 boats. Those that failed were broken up or burned. [photo: Dave Wedd] One of the houseboats was made famous in waterways circles by David Horsfell who wrote a book about life aboard Adelina with his family in the early 1960s. [photo: Peter Jones] However Adelina was allowed to become derelict and she too had to be burned. [photo: Dave Wedd] As part of the preparations for the re-opening of the canal, the remaining boats at Arthur's Bridge were relocated in 1990 to new moorings at Woodham, below Lock 3, while the Joan Marshall and Pandora remained at Hermitage. New canalside services were provided, and while dredging and piling dramatically altered this end of the canal from a sleepy backwater to working waterway status, renovation was better than gradual decay.

Many of the boats still remaining have now had replacement hulls. A number of owners have provided individual touches. This 'desirable residence' for aquatics, seen at its best in 1994, has now fallen into disrepair. Management of the houseboat and land agency matters are carried out on behalf of Surrey County Council by its agents Bruton Knowles Ltd. and all income from the houseboat moorings goes direct to the County Council. The Canal Authority does not benefit in any way from the boats being moored on the canal. While navigators tend to regard the static existence of houseboaters with some reserve, there will always be a bond between those who enjoy life afloat, if only briefly, and those who chose to make it a way of life. Author's note: Thanks to Les Foster, Tim Dodwell and Oliver Hibburd for information which helped to compile this brief history of the houseboat community. (Based on an article by Dieter Jebens in BC News 150, March 1990, with additional material from Tony Harmsworth) BACK

Last updated May 2000